BEST SPORTFISHING ACTION IS FOR NEAR-SHORE SIERRA

April 10, 2005, Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas, La Playita, San Jose del Cabo, Baja fishing, Mexico:

The La Playita panga sportfishing fleets sent out approximately 48 charters for the week and anglers accounted for an all-around fish count of: 8 yellowfin tuna, 16 dorado, 4 bull shark, 120 pargo, 18 amberjack, 22 cabrilla, 2 yellowtail, 22 pompano, 210 sierra, 4 roosterfish, 18 jack crevalle and 30 triggerfish.

San Jose del Cabo (Los Cabos) seemed to have a second wave of late spring breakers, though the number of anglers continued to be minimal. Maybe it is because of the not so great fishing report for the past couple of weeks. With San Jose del Cabo fishing area water temperatures ranging form 65 to 70 degrees the sportfishing fleets have been searching throughout the region trying to find the best possible action. There has been a variety of species found, but no great numbers of anything in particular. The wind has been picking up fairly strong out of the north and this has limited where charters could comfortably fish. Also, the swell increased during the recent new moon phase, scattering inshore bait fish.

Daily catches included striped marlin, dorado, yellowfin tuna, wahoo, pargo, sierra, jack crevalle, pompano and a mix of others.

Yellowfin tuna fishing at San Jose del Cabo was hit or miss and far offshore for the most part. The fish landed were medium football sized yellowfin of 10 to 20 pounds.

Striped marlin were found spread out from Cabo San Lucas to the Gordo Banks, but again not in big numbers. A few swordfish were reportedly spotted but apparently showed no interest in taking the baits offered.

Dorado fishing at San Jose del Cabo was the same story, basically very slow and spread out.

More consistent fishing was encountered closer to shore, but most of the fish were smaller sierra, up to 6 or 7 pounds and pargo to 10 pounds. A few jack crevalle to 15 pounds were found this past week, as well as some African pompano to 10 pounds. At San Luis there was some promising signs of a strong bite on pompano about to develop, but then a large sized school of bull sharks shut down any hope for that, as the sharks could be seen in swarms passing underneath the pangas near shore in shallow water of only 30 to 40 feet and quickly scattered the schooling pompano. Several of the sharks were hooked up on sardinas and of the ones landed they were in the 5 to 6 foot range, weighing to over 100 pounds. Bets spot for sierra continued to be off of the Red Hill area, but on some days the sea lions proved to be a major nuisance, biting off a majority of fish that were hooked up.

Bottom fishing was slower than normal for this time of year at San Jose del Cabo, but there were some nice catches of cabrilla, pargo and amberjack accounted for on some days. But the action was not consistent.

(See "Mexico Fishing News" online for current fishing reports, photos, weather, and water temperatures from San Jose del Cabo and other major Mexican sportfishing areas. Vacation travel articles, fishing maps and seasonal calendars, and fishing related information for San Jose del Cabo may be found at Mexfish.com's main San Jose del Cabo page.